FOOD-BASED CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN ENGLISH

7th meeting of STYLES ACROSS CULTURES,

Bacau, 21 March 2008

Andreea Spulber

Romanian-English, 3rd year

Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Vertumnus

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Paper Plan

I. INTRODUCTION

II. A REVIEW OF SOME THEORIES OF METAPHOR

II.1. Interaction theoriesII.2. ComparativismII.3. Conceptual theories

III. CONCEPTUAL METAPHORSIII.1. DefinitionIII.2. Structure of metaphorsIII.3. Types of conceptual metaphors  IV. A CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

ON FOOD AS METAPHOR IV.1. Religion-as-foodIV.2. Sex and gender as foodIV.3. Food as metaphor for family

IV.4. Food as metaphor for social hierarchyIV.5. Food as group identity: local and national

identities

V. FOOD-BASED CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

V.1. Idiom-based food metaphorsV.2. Ontological metaphors: abstract concept-

as-food• IDEAS ARE FOOD• COGNITION IS EATING• FILMS ARE FOOD

VI. CONCLUSIONS

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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II. A REVIEW OF SOME THEORIES OF METAPHOR

II.1. Interaction Theories Richards (1936) brings the viewpoint of semantics which focuses on

meaning at sentence level. In terms of structure, the metaphor consists of two parts:

• tenor is 'the thing meant', that which is to be described by the metaphor; • vehicle is the image chosen to describe 'the thing meant'.

The metaphor is sometimes further analysed in terms of:• ground (consists of the similarities between the tenor and the vehicle); • tension (consists of the dissimilarities between the tenor and the vehicle).

EXAMPLEA destroyed city is a ravaged woman.

tenor = the destroyed city; vehicle = the woman; the ground = they are both sacred spaces violated by hostile entry or

possession.

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II.2. Comparativism

A form of comparison theory (Fogelin, 1988) holds that a metaphor "A is (a) B" is an elliptically presented comparison of its primary subject (A) to its secondary subject (B, or Bs in general), where this comparison is to be taken in a distinctively figurative manner, as a simile.

Whether one takes it literally or figuratively, a comparison "A is like (a) B" is true just in case A shares sufficiently many of (a) B's most significant properties.

Understanding metaphor becomes a matter of identifying a distinctively figurative way of deciding which properties of (a) B count as relevant and how many of them count as sufficient.

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II.3. Conceptual Theories

Conceptual theories (Lakoff, 1993; Fauconnier and Turner, 2002) hold that verbal metaphor is a manifestation of pervasive modes of thinking wherein people "map" one conceptual domain (e.g., love affairs etc.) onto another (e.g., journeys with their successive stops) or "blend" the systems of terms in which they conceive two different domains.

The corresponding terms to 'tenor' and 'vehicle' in Lakoff’s terminology are target and source.

In this nomenclature, metaphors are named using the typographical convention "TARGET IS SOURCE” or “target-as-source”.

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III.1.What is a conceptual metaphor? In cognitive linguistics, metaphor is defined as understanding one

conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain.

III.2. Structure of conceptual metaphors There are two main roles for the conceptual domains posited in

conceptual metaphors:• Source domain: the conceptual domain from which we draw

metaphorical expressions;• Target domain: the conceptual domain that we try to understand.

A mapping is the systematic set of correspondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the target domain.

To know a conceptual metaphor is to know the set of mappings that applies to a given source-target pairing.

III. CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

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Example of conceptual metaphor

E.g. “the vacuum cleaner grazes/ over the carpet, lowing…” (Craig Raine – ‘An Enquiry into Two Inches of Ivory‘)

The target domain is an everyday domestic appliance and the source domain a familiar bovine animal.

The source domain is evoked by verbs which specify some action of the target ('grazes' and 'lowing')

The metaphorical formula can be captured as: A HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE IS A FARMED ANIMAL. (Simpson, 2004:92)

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III.3. Types of conceptual metaphors

A conventional metaphor is a metaphor that is commonly used in everyday language in a culture to give structure to some portion of that culture’s conceptual system. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 51).

Three basic types of metaphor are used to "conceptualize the less clearly delineated in terms of the more clearly delineated" (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 59):1. An ontological metaphor is a metaphor in which an abstraction, such as an activity, emotion, or idea, is represented as something concrete, such as an object, substance, container, or person.

e.g. I can't keep up with the pace of modern life.

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Ontological metaphors

The main types of ontological metaphors are:a. containment/container metaphor which represent one concept

as having and inside and an outside and capable of holding something else.e.g. Her life is crammed with activities.  (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 51)

b. substance metaphor in which an abstraction, such as an event, activity, emotion, or idea, is represented as material. e.g. There was a lot of good sprinting in the race. (activity-as- substance metaphor, Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 31)

c. An entity metaphor which represents an abstraction as a concrete physical object. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 33-34)e.g. We're still trying to grind out the solution to this equation.

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Other types of conventional metaphors

2. An orientational metaphor is a metaphor in which concepts are spatially related to each other, as in the following ways: up and down, in and out, front and back, on and off, deep or shallow, central or peripheral. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 66,139)

e.g. That boosted my spirits.

3. A structural metaphor is a conventional metaphor in which one concept is understood and expressed in terms of another structured, sharply defined concept. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 4).

e.g. He attacked every weak point in my argument. 

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IV. A CROSS CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ON FOOD AS METAPHOR

Many aspects of social and cultural life are talked about and experienced in terms of food. This kind of comparison occurs easily because of the systematic organization of food and food habits within each culture.

Food can serve as a metaphor for family, religion, sex, gender, social position, and group identity, among other things.

These principal metaphors appear across cultures, but are organized locally as different peoples speak of different foods and equate them with specific elements of their lives.

Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman, book cover

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FOOD AS METAPHOR (1)

IV.1. Religion-as-food Food is a powerful metaphor for

sacrifice, order, self-discipline, purity, generosity, and other key values in religious and ritual life around the world.

Special rules and practices concerning dietary standards and ceremonial behavior distinguish and make concrete complex values and belief systems.

IV.2. Sex and Gender as Food Food can convey voluptuousness

and sensuality, temptation and the arousal of desire (oysters as aphrodisiacs), consummation and fulfillment (sharing food as an exchange of bodily juices).

Food is also used in linguistic metaphors when food items are compared to body parts in references to sexual activity, and as terminology for sexual “appetite" “hunger" and pleasure .

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FOOD AS METAPHOR (2)

IV.3. Food as Metaphor for Family

The affective and sensory aspects of food contribute to associations of certain foods with specific people and events.

For example, the smell of a roast turkey for Americans may evoke fond memories of a time when family comes together.

Thus, tasting and reminiscing about food items metaphorically bring up family members and family bonds

without explicitly mentioning them.

IV.4. Food as Metaphor for Social Hierarchy

Regulation of food and food habits is a persistent metaphor for social stratification.

Such varied systems as class, caste, and status can all be thought of in terms of food.

In the consumer societies of North America and Europe, eating caviar and foie gras and drinking expensive champagne are seen as consuming luxury goods and are associated with the wealth of the upper classes.

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FOOD AS METAPHOR (3)

IV.5. Food as Group Identity: Local and National Identities People's nationalities are sometimes spoken of in terms of the foods

they eat. Food stereotypes can be derogative, as in the case of the French being

called "frogs" by the British and the British being referred to as "roastbeefs" by the French. While food metaphors can deconstruct identities, they also construct them.

Preserving local food habits both practically and metaphorically promotes the survival of a variety of local and ethnic groups because community members experience and transmit their local identity in terms of food-related experiences.

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V. FOOD-BASED CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

V.1. Idiom-Based Food Metaphors Glucksberg (2001) puts forward a new theory of metaphor

comprehension. The central principle of this theory is that ordinary conversational metaphors are used to create new concepts and categories.

Most metaphorical mappings are transmitted through familiar, commonly occurring linguistic expressions, such as idioms.

According to Kevin King (2006), there can be given several examples of food idioms as metaphors whose interpretation is

accessible. 

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IDEAS ARE FOOD

The metaphor IDEAS ARE FOOD is conveyed through a variety of everyday constructions:

• 'Your theory's half-baked. (exhibiting a lack of good judgement or common sense)

• His story is pretty hard to swallow'. • I can't stomach that idea.

Other idioms that render this idea are:• spill the beans (divulge confidential information or secrets);• open a can of worms (a situation that presents difficulty,

uncertainty or perplexity);• food for thought (anything that provides mental stimulus for

thinking).The pattern in such metaphors involves the mapping between an

abstract target domain (IDEAS) and a more physical source domain (FOOD).

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MONEY IS FOOD

Examples• dough (money);• bread (money, food, sustenance);• skim (the) profits (to take, remove, appropriate for

illegal use).

The pattern in such metaphors involves the mapping between MONEY as target domain and FOOD as the source domain (FOOD).

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PEOPLE ARE FOOD

Examples• a big cheese (a very important or influential person; the head of an organization);• a couch potato  (a lazy and overweight person who watches a lot of television, sometimes in their underwear and sometimes drinking beer).• the cream of the crop (used when speaking about the absolute best of a category).

In these examples, the mapping is achieved between a concrete, personal target domain (PEOPLE) and a physical source domain (FOOD). Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

The Cook

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V.2. Ontological metaphors: abstract concept-as-food

EXAMPLE: The lecture was a three-course meal.

Lakoff (1993) has proposed that figurative expressions are interpreted as instantiations of conceptual metaphors, such as IDEAS ARE FOOD.

Other examples of IDEAS ARE FOOD:• raw facts (brutally realistic)• warmed-over theories  (not fresh or new)That idea has been fermenting for year.   (to be in an excited or

agitated state)This is the meaty part of the paper.   (significant)Let me stew over that for a while.   (to focus the attention on

something)

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Subtypes of the conceptual metaphor IDEAS ARE FOOD(1)

LEARNING IS EATINGHe is never satiated from learning.

UNDERSTANDING IS TASTINGTaste me. (i.e., try to understand me).

UNDERSTANDING IS DIGESTINGI have digested the lesson very well.

REMEMBERING IS REGURGITATINGOur merchandise has come back to us. Do not swallow something that is not well digested and vomit it on us.

Subtypes of the conceptual metaphor IDEAS ARE FOOD(2)

OFFERING IDEAS IS COOKING

I can’t seal anything into the pot with him. (i.e., I can’t understand anymore what he says.)

BELIEVING IS SWALLOWING

He who has gulped an offensive word, hasn’t swallowed a bone.

PERSUADING IS EATING

He is eating his brain. (i.e., he is trying to persuade him to accept his trend of thought.)

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COGNITION IS EATING

Conceptual metaphors typically employ a more abstract concept as target and a more concrete or physical concept as their source (see cognition-as-eating): 

EXAMPLES• That information is hard to swallow (to consume as if by ingestion)• I couldn't quite digest your lecture. (to absorb or assimilate

mentally)• I'm still chewing on your words from last night. (meditating,

thinking upon something)• He has a voracious appetite for fiction. (having an insatiable

appetite for reading)• Some teachers spoon-feed their students. (provide knowledge or

information in an oversimplified way)

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FILMS ARE FOOD

The fact that films are often compared to food implies that they are essentially thought of as a combination of ideas

Film as an assembled whole of ideas is a dish already cooked and served.

EXAMPLES• “The Sweetest Thing” leaves a sadly sour taste. (Bob

Strauss/ U Entertainment) [How well a film is made is scaled onto how good a taste].

• Passionate and magical, “Forrest Gump” is a tonic for the weary of spirit. (James Berardinelli/ Reel Views) – [What films can do for the audience is converted in what food do for the eater. How well a film is made is scaled onto how good a taste].

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VI. CONCLUSIONS

Metaphor plays a central role in the way we make sense of the world. From a semantic perspective, metaphor is a common way of achieving new sense and can provide valuable insights.

As frameworks for thinking about the world, metaphors are shaped by their cultural context. Food and food systems serve as a metaphor for complex issues such as family, religion, sex and gender, social position, and group identity.

Food-based metaphorical constructions represent a new way of regarding the process of creating and using a metaphor.

Both food idioms acting as metaphors in everyday life and ontological metaphors under the form abstract concept-as-food exploit the expressiveness of language and the multitude of meanings such expressions get.